1955 Granco FM-610U Tube Radio (pics)

[Jeffhs]

I'm amazed these FM-only radios sold at all in the 1950s. What was there to listen to on FM in most cities (let alone areas far from such cities) in those days? AM radio was still what most people listened to back then. The reception problems, if you were any distance from major cities, made it all but impractical to have any kind of FM radio until the 1970s or so. FM stations in major cities in those days either simulcast AM stations or played automated elevator music, and many of those stations went silent due to lack of advertising revenue. Most of the FM stations in Cleveland were still automated as late as the 1980s; most did not switch to live programming with DJs until the early 1990s. In fact, the last station to drop automated elevator music in 1991 was located about 60 miles outside Cleveland. That station is now operated by a large media conglomerate which has already bought up most of the FMs in the area (the rest having been swallowed up by CBS Radio), and is now playing some of the poorest excuses for music I have ever heard in my life.